Diesel DM

Full Long Gunners with UA

At long last I have completed the full Long Gunners with the UA. It took much longer than expected both from the massive challenge of painting twelve models simultaneously as well as being so busy with work that I didn’t get a lot of painting time. Nevertheless they were completed for the tournament last week. You’ll notice in the pictures that I’m trying out a gradient backdrop instead of the plain white I usually have. I like the gradient much better, just need to print out a higher quality version.

I went with the standard paint scheme for the most part except for the loin cloths I used my usual Jack Bone and Menoth White Highlight mixture. I also gave them denim pants to try and break up the brown and tan monotony. For the shoulder Cygnuses I went with a wider gradient than I typically do for my Cygnus yellows and I like the effect. It really makes the shoulder insignia pop.

Whenever I have several models with identical sculpts I try to differentiate them during painting. For these Long Gunners I varied hair and skin color. While most are based on Midlund Flesh, there are two based on Idrian Flesh, one Ryn Flesh and one Khardic Flesh. Mixing these flesh tones with grey, black, brown, blond and red hair gives a decent differentiation between similar sculpts.

Long Gunner Leader

Leader - Back

Starting with the leader I gave him grey hair for experience and the stresses of command.  For the goggles on this and the other models I went with a base of arcane blue then put a dot of Morrow White highlight on the top.  Simple technique, but I like the results.

Varied skin tone and hair color on the same sculpt

These next three models are identical sculpts but I chose a range of color combinations to keep them looking different.

Two more identical sculpts with varied skin tone and hair

Only two of this sculpt but again varying skin tones to keep them apart.

Midlund, Khardic and Rynnish Flesh help distinguish these sculpts

Various angles to show details

Of these four fellows two are Midlunders with brown and blonde hair. The next has darker Khardic tone with brown hair and the last has lighter Rynnish tone with red hair.

Long Gunner Officer and Standard Bearer

Long Gunner UA - Back

Lastly is the UA. After painting these two models I can officially say these are my least favorite models so far. The complete lack of detail compared to the unit is shocking. The small amount of detail that is present doesn’t match with the rest of the unit either. Very poor sculpts which is made to appear worse when next to the excellent sculpts of the rest of the Long Gunners. I never had models I actively disliked until these. That being said I tried to give the standard bearer a very young look by going with very light blonde hair and a light , clear complexion. For the officer I didn’t go with the grey-hair look like the leader but decided this guy was younger and risen through the ranks quickly because of his skills.

Now that I’m at the end of painting twelve models simultaneously I feel safe declaring it a very bad idea.  For me I will stick to a maximum of 6 at a time.  Twelve was just too much.  The advantages are that they all look the same and it probably takes less time to do 12 at once rather than two sets of 6, but it just felt like it took forever and no progress was being made.

Progress continues on the Long Gunners, though it doesn’t feel like the end is in sight yet.  I had hoped to complete them for the tournament on Saturday but that’s unlikely at this point.  So far the base coating is complete, the skin is fully painted , eyes are painted and hair is done.

Skin, hair and eyes painted

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After an exemplary showing in a 25-pt tournament, I felt the Long Gunners deserved to be up next for paint.  They set up on top of a hill turn one with pStryker providing Snipe and proceeded to make dual-shots all game long taking down a number of support models.  At 25-pts I had only used the minimum unit of 6, but I have 10 and the UA, so for consistency I wanted to paint them all at once.  I still haven’t decided for sure if this was a mistake.  Painting 12 models at once is a little much and it’s hard to feel like progress is being made.

12 Long Gunners on the Assembly Line

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The Cygnar Hunter is one of my favorite ‘jacks. He sports an almost reptilian stance, like a predatory dinosaur on the hunt. His face has a bit of a mean, aggressive look to it, while the top of the chassis has a refined aerodynamic feel.

When it comes to the game one of the biggest distinctions the Hunter has is Pathfinder. I wanted to embrace this as I based him to give it the feel that he wasn’t just out on a flat battlefield, but he was in rough terrain, on the hunt. I decided to have him just coming down a bank and stepping into a forest stream.

On the hunt.

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